Nobody ever suggested that dentists didn't have enough to do. It's not just that every day there's a full list of patients to see, with all the responsibility of safely delivering high quality care, which after all is every dentist's raison d'être; it's the other, daily, weekly, monthly and annual tasks which attend the running of any small business which compound the problem. There are always too many non-clinical, peripheral chores and not enough time to properly complete them. Then there's the paperwork.....
There has never been as much bureaucracy surrounding dentistry as there is today; even in an area as basic as infection control, the goalposts seem to shift with monotonous frequency, demanding more and more time to fill in, for example, staff training and sterilisation records. A dentist attending a recent convention was heard to remark, only half humorously, that perhaps he should instruct his cleaner to count and record her brush strokes when sweeping the waiting room floor.
Against this background, where the practitioner is required to be clinician and administrator, it's hardly surprising that family life often suffers and individual stress levels rise. At the same time, it is important the practice paperwork is kept up to date and it's particularly important to scrutinise legal documents and contracts to the last carefully dotted 'i' and crossed 't.' For example, how many principals can say, with absolute honesty, that they have read and fully understood the text and implications of every small print clause in their public liability insurance policy? When it comes to legal matters, not knowing exactly where you stand can have dramatic, possibly catastrophic consequences. Sometimes an issue which seems at first to be entirely trivial can lead to an unforeseen and very expensive final outcome. The devil, as many have said, is in the details.
All businesses are governed by legal agreements, covering every area from supply, service and maintenance to staff employment. Dentistry is further burdened by agreements between professional bodies, PCT, GDS and PDS contracts, and also possible associations between practices which refer patients to each other and who need to define which practice is responsible for which aspect of a particular treatment. It would be astonishing if working dental practitioners, whose primary concern must always be patient care, could find the time to assess whether these essential, multiple facets of business co-existence were all working to the maximum benefit of their own practice, and now we also have the prospect of incorporating our practices with the myriad additional issues that that may raise in terms of transferring contracts and compliance with another regulatory regime.
The obvious answer is to delegate. A stockbroker with a five acre garden who lives in Surbiton and leaves for town at seven every morning clearly cannot do the weeding or mow the lawn twice a week; the dentist who spends all day in the surgery cannot sensibly examine his business's legal documents after hours and still expect a quality family life. There is also every possibility that very often the dentist will not in any case have the specialist legal knowledge, experience or expertise to fully understand the implications of what he is reading.
Engaging an industry specialist legal adviser to manage the proliferation of legal and regulatory documents which beset dentists today is the logical, first step to reducing stress at work and improving the quality of life at home. Quite apart from the time saved, peace of mind is priceless.
Twenty-first century dentists can easily find they are spending more time on paperwork than in the surgery. Qualified legal help can ease the pressure when it comes to planning applications, disputes or claims resolution, staff, hygienists and associates contracts and employment law, debt recovery, transfers of ownership, service and supply contracts, even implementing the new pension regulations. The law today has more tentacles than an octopus, and in the name of safeguarding the public, not to mention the staff, they reach into every nook and cranny of a retail healthcare business.
Selecting the appropriate legal firm is crucial. Lawyers in general practice will not be familiar with the specific peculiarities of dentistry, and while a straightforward property conveyance when purchasing premises is one thing, a complex dispute between clinical professionals, the renegotiation of a PCT contract or reviewing a patient complaint are different matters entirely. Experience matters.
There is a widespread belief that legal advisors are expensive. The word 'expensive,' of course, is entirely relative. Examples of false economy abound in business, and deliberately dispensing with legal help on cost grounds is well proven to be one of them. In matters of the law, especially when resolving claims or disputes, attention to the smallest detail is essential. What may appear inconsequential to a layman could well be the linchpin of a complicated compensation claim. Contracts need to be planned with eventualities in view, and relying on verbal agreements in a litigious age is fraught with peril.